1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to printers and particularly to portable printers.
2. Discussion of the Art
Many types and models of office printers are currently available to serve diverse office printing needs. Small printer mechanisms have been developed and are commercially available as OEM components to be coupled to calculators or to be incorporated into various types of equipment including office equipment and point of sale units. Printers also have become available for portable use in conjunction with portable computers. A printer unit may be stored in a case together with a computer. The case may be ported to a convenient user location at which the case may be opened and the computer and the printer may be used in conjunction with each other. However, the known printers typically fail to afford the printer mechanism sufficient protection to allow the printer to be used in a mobile working environment which may expose the printer to various environmental hazards. Typical office use of printers does not expose them to the hazards of outdoors use and contaminants which are known to be damaging to the mechanism. Such harmful contaminants may include, for example, moisture in the form of rain, or dirt or dust from inherently dusty environments.
A potentially damaging amount of dust even may be found at some manufacturing locations or in a warehouse. But more generally, printers would most likely be exposed to hazards at various outdoor locations, such as construction sites or simply during a sudden rain shower while a printer is being carried between two order taking locations, for example.
3. Related Developments
A copending application for patent by George E. Chadima, Jr. et al., entitled MODULAR PRINTER SYSTEM, filed on . . . and assigned to the assignee of this invention, relates to a printer module and a terminal module which are combined in a modular printer device. In a particular aspect of a development related to the above copending application, an open frame provides for mounting modules, such as the printer module and the terminal module. The modular printer system may be hand-carried by a handle attached to the frame, or it may be vehicle-mounted and powered by the vehicle, such as in a delivery route or in a warehousing operation. The above development provides substantial improvements in protecting the printer against the above mentioned environmental hazards. Nevertheless, for pre-sale, order taking operations a need is seen in spite of current developments to provide printers with improved compactness and ruggedness, without sacrifice of features protecting the printers from environmental hazards, and with further weight reduction. Attempts to bring about a higher degree of compactness typically are found to result in a lesser degree of ruggedness of the printers.